Support Your Local Captain
by sprocketmox
Summary: While making a delivery on Valhalla Mal ends up with a job he never wanted. His new temporary occupation comes with more trouble than he can handle alone. Will his crew help him?


This story takes place before the events of Firefly the television series.

Support Your Local Captain

The sound of thrusters cut through the nighttime quiet of Valhalla. Serenity touched down inside of a large crater outside of the small mining town of Omar. Minutes later the cargo bay doors opened revealing Malcolm Reynolds. His eyes scanned the darkness beyond the ship before turning their attention to the conversation behind him.

"I'm just saying. This was a stupid place to settle," Wash said placing a box on a small trailer attached to the ground mule. "Only two ways into this crater. The sky and one road."

"One more than we need," Mal said picking up a box to help.

"If you ask me this whole rock is a bad place to live. Nothin' good here at all," Jayne said placing the last box on the trailer. Zoe got on the mule. Mal swung a leg over getting on the back behind her.

"Not sure I like your front parts against my wife's back parts like that," Wash said with a slight glower on his face.

Mal leaned back and said, "What? She never told you about the cold nights during the war?"

"Sir," Zoe said then accelerated the mule so hard and unexpected the grinning Mal almost fell from the back of it.

The few people out past dark gave them strange looks as they rode by with the trailer squeaking behind them. Mal pointed at an old rusty anti-aircraft gun sitting on the edge of town facing the only road out of the crater. An empty threat he thought as the gun looked like it no longer worked.

"Pre-war made looks like," Mal said.

"No doubt she fired some shots in it," Zoe said with a tired voice glancing over at the gun.

Mal stared at the gun a few more seconds then shook the past out of his head. He looked past Zoe to see their destination. A little miner swung his pick at the the D in "Daylight" on the sign above the swinging doors of the saloon.

"We're supposed to meet our contact in there," Mal said pointing up ahead. Zoe stopped the mule and Mal dismounted.

"I'll stay with the cargo," Zoe said as she dismounted.

"And here I was lookin' forward to telling Wash how we had a drink together," Mal said stepping backwards towards Daylight's doorway.

A few women in colorful dresses and cleanly dressed men stood out in a room otherwise full of dirty and tired miners. One of the clean men in particular wearing a white chinese silk shirt beneath a spotless jet stetson caught Mal's attention. He approached the man who stood at the bar drinking out of a small glass.

"What ya havin'?" the bartender asked.

"Business," Malcolm said.

The bartender grabbed a small glass and poured in some whiskey. After sitting the glass back down on the bar in front of Malcolm he cut his eyes over to the man in the stetson.

Mal picked the glass up, took a drink, and said, "Baihu?"

The man didn't look instead he took another drink. "Depends. Who are you?"

"Someone with a load of lady's-"

Baihu turned and held his hand up to stop Mal from finishing. "I have a reputation to keep around here. I heard you were good at discretion. It's why I wanted you."

"You have the money?," Mal asked taking another drink.

Baihu took a bag out of his pocket and laid it on the bar beside Mal. "I wasn't able to acquire the full amount, but you are here now. Be a shame to pass up what sits in front of you."

"What would be a shame," Mal spoke louder and louder, "is if I had to leave these lady's-" Baihu shushed him.

"Alright, alright, I got the rest back at my place."

Malcolm takes some money from the bag and puts it on the bar. They turn and head towards the front doors.

"Get your hands off me!" shouted a woman in a black and pink dress. A large man with a leathery face and coarse beard had his arms wrapped around her at the waist. She pushed her hands against his face until he let go making her fall to the floor.

At first he had tried to ignore it but the ruckus stopped Mal. He looked around the room. Everyone acted as if nothing were happening. No one even bothered looking in the direction of the woman laying on the floor.

"Useless slag," the man said reaching for his gun.

Without thinking Mal drew his gun and shot the man down. Zoe burst through the front doors with her gun in hand. Mal held his gun up looking around to see if anyone else had anything to say. A few people looked at him wide eyed, but no one said a word.

"So much for discretion," Baihu said pushing through the doors and walking out followed by Mal and cautious confused Zoe. As soon as they were outside a man in a grey suit burst out of the saloon.

"You're hired!" the man shouted.

"Hired for what?" Mal said somewhat ignoring the man.

"For our sheriff of course."

A smile that bordered on laughter spread across Malcolm's face as he turned to face the man. "Always on the lookout for the next job, but not that one. Thanks."

"I'm the mayor of this here town and I'm not taking no for an answer. Do you know who it was you just shot in there?"

"Didn't bother to ask," Mal said trying to ignore the man again and move on with his business with Baihu.

"That man was a Scalari."

"A what?"

"They're a family. A dangerous family. When they find out someone killed one of their own they'll turn this town upside down looking for the man who did it."

Malcolm leaned his forehead against a post and let his arms hang limp. "Just once I'd like a job that doesn't end with Gun HOE-tze bee DIO-se. What does the job pay?"

"A hundred a day," the mayor said nodding to himself.

"Make it four hundred and you have a deal."

"Four hundred?!" the mayor shouted grabbing his hair.

"If you want to deal with them, Scalari was it?, then you go right ahead, but that's my price." Mal turned away from the mayor.

"Fine you got a deal," the mayor said drooping over. He reached into his pocket and took out a star shaped badge with a hole in the middle.

"Do I even need to ask what happened to the last sheriff?" Mal asked as he was handed the badge.

"Oh he tried arresting one of the Scalari brothers, but that won't be a problem for you will it?" The mayor put a hand on Mal's shoulder. "You'll just kill them right?"

"You have me wrong mayor. I'm not in the killing business." Malcolm held the badge out trying to give it back.

"We kill people all the time," Zoe said crossing her arms.

"That's different. Those were..." Malcolm tensed up his shoulders and shook his head. "Work hazards."

"You just shot a man in there," the mayor said pointing back at the doors. Mal opened his mouth, but couldn't find the argument to make.

Two men on horses looked at a big dark shape in the distance. Serenity with all her lights off was barely visible in the darkness. The shorter of the two men turned to the other.

"Told you I saw a ship fly over," said Ralph Scalari.

"They think they can just fly stuff in behind our backs?" Joe Scalari said with a sneer on his face. "We control what goes in and out of this town," he said pointing a thumb at himself. "Us!"

"We'll show 'em," Ralph said.

Zoe unloaded the last box taking it into Baihu's house as Mal got the money they were owed from the man himself.

"Nice doing business with you," Mal said.

"Yes, yes, leave now before you cause anymore trouble." Baihu went inside his house. Before closing the door he looked both ways to see if anyone was watching.

Malcolm took the badge out of his pocket and pinned it to his coat. "How do I look?" he asked posing for Zoe.

"You don't really mean to play at sheriff do you?" she said.

"No. By the time we're missed we'll be a long way from this gorram ro-" Gunshots sounded out from around the corner. Zoe and Mal drew their guns and went to edge of Baihu's house to investigate. Ralph and Joe Scalari rode up and down the road in front of the saloon shooting at nothing in particular.

"Y'all thought you could just pull one over on us?!" Joe shouted.

"We see everything!" Ralph followed shooting again.

"Who hired 'em?! Show yourself!" Joe yelled as he dismounted. Ralph dismounted as well and the two moved towards the doors of Daylight.

Malcolm rolled back around the corner. "That would be the Scalaris."

Zoe nodded to him with her brow furrowed. "Sir, if they find out about the one you shot."

Malcolm looked away from her as if he were searching for a solution and it were some where in the air in front of them. Then he popped around the corner with his hands out and a grin on his face.

"Hey! What's with all this yelling and shooting? Some of us are trying to sleep."

Joe had the door half pushed open when he stopped and turned towards Malcolm. "Well, looks like we got a new sheriff," he said with a look of amusement on his face.

Mal looked down only then realizing he still had the badge on. Joe pointed his gun at the sheriff but was shot down by a flanking Zoe he didn't see. Ralph startled by the situation grabbed his horse, mounted up, and rode out of town as Zoe and Malcolm fired shots at him.

Like a rodent the mayor peeked over the doors of the saloon. Once he saw the danger was over he came out applauding. "See, I knew you could do it. Two down fourteen to go."

Mal raised an eyebrow at him. "Four-what?!"

On Serenity's bridge Mal, Zoe, Kaylee, and Jayne gathered around Wash sitting in the pilot's chair. Morning light shined through the front windows. Malcolm leaned against the wall with his arms crossed.

"So that's the situation. A good many people are looking to die on account of something I did," Mal said.

"You did the right thing," Kaylee said nodding at him.

"That don't change how things are." He looked away from her and down.

"How many? Fourteen?" Wash said twisting side to side in his chair looking all of them with his mouth open in disbelief. "Why are there so many? Hasn't their mother ever heard of contraception?"

"I don't see how it's any of our business," Jayne said while leaned up against the doorway.

"It is my business. I made it my business as boneheaded as it were," Mal said with a bit of anger in his voice.

"Oh, let me corret myself," Jayne said, "I don't see how it is my business." He spun around and began to walk away.

"Guess it's just me and Zoe splitting the money we gettin'," Mal said loud enough Jayne could hear him.

A moment later Jayne walked back into the bridge and said, "What's the plan?"

Zoe stepped forward. "The mayor said the Scalaris live half a day's ride by horse away. They'll probably be back tonight ready to make a fuss."

"Unless we got a brigade stowed away o this ship we need more people," Malcolm said.

"Or bigger guns," Jayne said.

Zoe looked at Mal who raisd an eyebrow back at her. Simultaneously a grin spread across both of their faces.

"What? What did I say?" Jayne said.

Mal, Zoe, and Kaylee looked up at the anti-aircraft gun. Both of the gun's barrels were rusty every where but inside which looked thickly coated in black powder. Soiled sponge protruded out of a split on the gunner's seat. Only one of what Mal assumed had been two shell racks remained.

"So, you think you can clean her up?" Mal asked.

"Yeah I got somethin' take the rust right off her. She'll look good as new," Kaylee said smiling.

"You get right on that," Mal said as he watched Jayne dragging up a piece of what once belonged to a Skyjumper. "That'll work. Now drag it down the road a ways."

"I need to learn to keep my mouth shut," Jayne said dragging the scrap heap on. "Damn mule picked a good time to break down."

Two beautiful women wearing dresses with tight cleavage revealing bodices approached Mal and surrounded him.

"You're the man that helped Mavis aren't you?" the woman in the blue dress said smiling and bouncing slightly as she spoke.

"He's our new sheriff don't you know," the woman in the the green dress said brushing up against him. Mal grinned trying to hide that he enjoyed the attention.

Wiping sweat from his forehead Jayne sat down on the Skyjumper landing gear and looked back up the road at Malcolm surrounded by the women. "While I'm dragging garbage around he's gettin' all the gorram attention," he growled.

Later that night Zoe and Malcolm watched the road looking for any sign of the Scalaris. Beside them Kaylee sat in the gunner's seat of the anti-aircraft gun with goggles on her head. Lights appeared down the road dancing up and down moving closer ever second. She moved the googles down to cover her eyes.

"Sir, if this doesn't work," Zoe said.

"We'll be in a mess. Kayelee, if things turn bad you take cover you hear?" Mal said.

Kaylee saluted and said, "Got it cap'n!" She wiggled around in her seat trying to get comfortable.

Mal held up a comm device and spoke into it. "How's it lookin' Jayne?"

Jayne had taken position on a crater made hill east of the road. Beside him laid a scoped rifle, a pair of binoculars, and a small black box. With one eye looking through the scope he picked up his comm and replied, "I see 'em good and clear." As he put the comm aside he said, "If this doesn't work you're on your own."

A line of men on horses stopped down the road a few paces away from the Skyjumper junk Jayne had dragged down there. Some of them carried torches. All of them had guns out, be they rifles or otherwise.

Mal leaned towards Zoe not looking away from them. "How many you count?"

"Ten, sir." He looked her in the eyes then she jogged away.

Down the road Ralph who Mal recognized from the previous night guffawed and said, "Look at that! One of 'em is already running!" The other Scalaris joined him in laughter.

Malcolm stepped forward with his hands out so they could see they were empty. "I don't suppose you came here for a cookout! What with all that fire you got there!"

All of the Scalaris stopped laughing as Ralph began to speak again. "You some kind of tough guy aren't ya?! A veteran looks like! Ready to lose another fight?!" The Scalaris laughed again.

"Kaylee," Mal said. The anti-aircraft gun turned to point directly at the Scalaris. A very wide smile filled Kaylee's face as she controlled the gun.

"Everybody knows that gun don't work!" Ralph shouted. Some of the others snickered behind him.

"You sure about that?!" Malcolm replied.

Jayne watched Kaylee and Mal through his binoculars. Malcolm raised a hand then dropped it.

"Fire!"

After dropping the binoculars Jayne picked up the little black box. Quick as possible he turned a knob on it then pushed a button. The Skyjumper wreckage exploded! Some of the Scalaris fell from their their horses. Those still on their horses turned and ran.

"That thing's workin'!" one of them with grey hair howled as he got on his feet.

"Let's go!" Ralph shouted. He was on his feet ready to run but fell again before taking another step. Jayne turned to aim at the grey haired Scalari. The few Scalari still able to move ran away into darkness down the road as Jayne shot at them. Two more fell before he stopped shooting unable to see well enough to continue.

Mal turned to Kaylee and grinned. She smiled big back at him with a small playful shrug. "Alright Kaylee, wait right here." He held up the comm. "Jayne, we got trouble get back to Serenity."

A lose flip switch had caught Wash's attention. He fiddled with it until it came lose from the console. While giving the switch an intense stare he heard footsteps behind him. "Back already? Guess the Scalari family were push overs after-" He rotated around in his chair to see two men pointing guns at him. "-all. How'd you get in here?"

"Did you hear what he called us?" Ben Scalari asked keeping his eyes on Wash.

"Push overs I heard," Tom Scalari said. Ben walked over to Wash and whipped him across the head with the butt of his gun knocking him unconscious.

"Now why'd you and do that? We coulda used him." Tom said.

"We didn't need him yet. Tie him up and come to the cargo hold." Ben said then started toward the door.

"Cargo hold?"

Ben stopped and turned his head back. "When those dogs run where do you think they'll run back to? And we'll be waiting for 'em"

Inside the bridge minutes later the grating near ship's nose lifted up. Zoe's eyes rose slowly above the floor. Up the steps Wash, still unconscious and tied up, laid facing her with blood running down the side of his face. Zoe emarged from the hole followed by Mal. Keeping her gun pointed at the doorway Zoe knelt down beside Wash and gave him a quick check over. A nod to Malcolm confirmed that Wash would be alright.

All four Scalaris had taken cover in various places throughout the cargo bay with their guns at the ready. Above them the exterior access hatch in the room adjacent to the galley had just been opened. Big dirty boots landed on the floor with a thud.

"You hear that?" Tom asked looking and pointing his gun up.

"Hear what?" Ben asked.

"I think I heard somethin'."

Ben gestured at the other two. "Randy, Jeffery, go check it out."

A few minutes later after the two went up stairs they heard more noises. Ben and Tom looked up. Uneased Tom glanced back at the cargo bay door thinking of leaving.

"Maybe we should go up there," Ben said. When Tom hesitated he grabbed his brother by the arm and pulled him. "Come on!"

"What do we have here?" Mal said behind him.

"Looks like a couple of stowaways, sir," Zoe replied.

The two Scalari brothers jumped around to see Zoe and Mal standing front of the doorway leading to the infirmary with their guns aimed at them.

"There are no free rides on my boat," Mal said then motioned for them to drop their weapons. Ben and Tom dropped their guns and put their hands up. Zoe walked over to them.

"Would one of you mind telling me who hit my husband?" she asked looking from one to the other. Ben smirked at her, but then he noticed Tom pointing at him. The next thing he saw was the butt of Zoe's gun coming at his face.

Serenity's cargo bay door opened and Jayne emerged dragging Randy and Jeffery out onto the ground. Mal pressed a button on the ship's intercom.

"You alright Wash?"

Zoe stood behind Wash with his head peeled back so she could see to his wound. Her chest was pressed up against his head. A stupid grin had plastered itself on his face.

"Oh yeah, much better," he said pressing the button to respond without looking.

"Get us off this rock as soon as possible, but remember to pick up Kaylee and our pay.

Back in town Kaylee sat on the anti-aircraft rig with worry written all over her face. She tried to clear her mind of what might be happening back on Serenity. Eventually boredom overtook her concern. She looked around the town. A dull place to live she thought. Nothing with an engine. A dirty miner walked by and smiled at her revealing a mouth with few teeth. Most of the men ain't much to look at either.

An idea hit her and she snapped the googles down over her eyes. She took up the gun's controls in her hands and began to turn it.

"We got incoming cap'n!"

As the guns' barrels passed a grocer she pulled the triggers.

"Bang! Direct hit!"

She smiled as the gun turned farther around.

"Bang!"

The gun's barrels came to a stop pointing at the Daylight saloon.

"We got a big one comin' in hot!"

She pulled the triggers again. BOOM! The gun fired blowing away some of the roof and part of the front of the saloon. Kaylee's eyes stretched wide. Right at that moment Serenity flew up overhead. Mal saw the damaged saloon through a window. Splinters of wood still floated in the air. He ran to the cargo bay door opening it as the ship landed.

"What did you do?!" He shouted as Kaylee ran aboard.

"It was an accident!" she cried.

"Wash take off," he said into the intercom. Serenity lifted from the ground again.

"What about our pay?" Jayne said behind them.

"I think they'd argue we owe them now." Mal replied. Jayne punched a box and walked away.

"You don't think I hurt anyone do ya?" Kaylee said holding a hand over her mouth.

Mal looked down at the Saloon through the closing door as people piled out of it.

"Nah." he said tossing the sheriff badge out of the narrowing gap in the doorway. The cargo bay door closed.

END


End file.
